For UK Coaching Week 2024, we spoke to our Performance Head Coach Luke Watson about his coaching journey including his top tips.
Luke has been the Welsh Triathlon Performance Coach since 2017, and is responsible for running the National Triathlon Performance Centre in Wales. Here is his story…
Luke’s journey into triathlon began as a frustrated swimmer at 15 years old. It was his mum that suggested that he try triathlon, and pointed him in the direction of the newly formed Pembrokeshire Triathlon Club junior section. Initially sceptical about this strange new sport, Luke attended the club’s second session and found it surprisingly enjoyable, going on to compete at a reasonable elite level through his junior years and whilst studying at Loughborough University.
His first experience in coaching stemmed from coaching swimming at his local club for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award when he was just 14 years old. Coaching remained a constant through his time in university, working with a whole range of different settings. However, the biggest shift occurred during his involvement as a paratriathlon guide for visually-impaired athletes, where he helped Iain Dawson (2012) and Dave Ellis (2013) to win the world title in consecutive years. Luke describes this as being like “a hybrid between being an athlete and being a coach” as he not only raced alongside the athletes, but supported them in training and preparation, including when Dave was just getting into the sport.
Upon graduating with a degree in chemical engineering, Luke made a pivotal decision to pursue coaching wholeheartedly, instead of following the traditional engineering career path. He said, “I love the sport and what it gave to me, in terms of experiences, opportunities and relationships. And I was ready to not be an athlete anymore, but I wasn’t ready to leave the sport entirely.”
Luke then took on a postgraduate degree in Sports Coaching, and was selected for the UKSport Athlete-to-Coach Programme. Meanwhile, he was immersed in the Olympic and Paralympic programmes, as well as working with the East Midlands Academy and England Talent Programmes. He gives great credit to the mentors and opportunities that further fuelled his coaching aspirations during this time.
In late-2016, a job became available at Welsh Triathlon, with the opportunity to develop a programme in Wales, and Luke has worked here for over 7 years since!
What skills have you personally developed through these coaching experiences?
Throughout his coaching experiences, Luke believes that he has developed his problem-solving skills. He recognises the positive impact of his engineering studies on this area “it’s a way of thinking and rationalising a situation to come up with the best solutions”.
However, he expresses that coaching has a much more personal side to it:
“It’s about understanding people. Humans aren’t the black boxes that you see in engineering, where input equals output. People are a lot more complicated than that.”
“As someone who was very scientific when I was younger, I was very black and white in the way that I thought. But coaching has made me a lot more comfortable with ‘it depends’ and that grey area where there isn’t really a right answer but you just have to make your best guess based on the information you have at the time.”
What have been some of your proudest coaching moments?
Luke recalls the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and specifically the silver medal winning performance in the Mixed Relay as one of the more obvious moments:
“It was a very public display of almost the highest level of our sport, and definitely the highest level that we compete as a Welsh team. And for the team to win a medal there, to be a part of the journey for those athletes, some of whom I’ve worked with for 10 years in different capacities. So, that is an obvious one.”
But Luke also recognises that, in coaching, it’s about the impact on the individuals.
“When you feel like you have really changed someone’s perspective on what the sport is about, what the sport can do for them as a person and how it develops their confidence, that is what it is really about.”
He reminisces on an instance where a young athlete who had been out of the sport, and was struggling with putting too much pressure on themselves and really not enjoying racing. They sat down together and made a race plan, where Luke advised her to ‘focus on yourself, what is controllable and your process’.
“I remember her running towards me after the race with these big wide eyes, saying ‘I enjoyed it – I didn’t know you could enjoy racing!’ And that really meant a lot.”
This is why the Commonwealth Games was particularly special for him, not just because they won a medal, but because of the people that it impacted:
“I always said that I got into coaching because I had amazing experiences and opportunities and therefore to be a part of something that reached that many people was really special.”
“You had the four athletes (Non Stanford, Iestyn Harrett, Olivia Mathias, and Dominic Coy) that were part of that team. But you also had the support team who are some of my closest friends, the wider Welsh Triathlon community, and the all Welsh people that were in the stands. You realise that this thing that we did touched so many people. And that is where I get my buzz from.”
Working with University students, how do you help athletes balance their training with other commitments such as work, exams, family etc?
Luke states that this is the same with coaching anyone, not specifically University students.
He says, “If you’re coaching someone, it is about understanding them, their context, their goals and priorities. That is the same whether you are working with someone who is going to the Olympics or someone who has a family or is a student.”
"You have to understand where the sport fits within their priorities, making sure they are realistic and understand the implications of their decisions.”
Luke understands that the sport of triathlon attracts, in general, a very driven type of person. He finds that these people (and very much includes himself in this!) aren’t very good at accepting that you can’t be perfect at everything all of the time. So, one thing that Luke prioritises in his coaching is working with the athletes to figure out their trade-offs. For example, approaching exam periods or around family commitments, it is important to plan appropriately and manage training around these.
“You have to work with the individual in front of you, build a plan and make sure that they know that it is okay to not be 100% in everything all of the time.”
What are some common mistakes that triathletes make in their training, and how can they be avoided?
Luke notes that a mistake that triathletes often make in their training is the tendency to consistently push themselves too hard, especially if they have limited time to train:
“If you have less time, it’s not just about battering yourself in every session – it’s about being more precise about what you are trying to get from each session and how you are going to do it to maximise improvements.”
Another common mistake that he mentions is focusing too much on the micro details and forgetting to look at the bigger picture. For example, instead of thinking ‘was that session good or not?’, Luke suggests thinking about ‘where was I 3 months/6 months/1 year ago?’
“The reality is that triathlon is an endurance sport. You do get better if you do more work. But we are talking about more work over a longer period of time. You can push yourself for a week or two but if you then have to take two weeks off or you get ill or injured, in the big picture, you lose more time. We try to talk a lot with the athletes in these kind of zoomed out terms.”
Finally, do you have any top coaching tips for someone just getting into triathlon?
“Join a club. You will get a community of like-minded people, coaches that you can work with, people with a lot more experience that you can learn from.”
“Be patient. It is a complicated sport and it takes time. Just be patient about your journey and your development.”
“Enjoy the process. Focus on the process of improving and overcoming challenges rather than just the outcome. Remember to enjoy the journey rather than just focusing on the destination.”
